'The Cycle' debates guns, tensions flare

12/3/12 5:40 PM EST

In the wake of NFL linebacker Javon Belcher's murder-suicide and Bob Costas's decision to advocate for gun control during Sunday Night Football, the co-hosts of MSNBC's "The Cycle" had a debate over gun control today that got very heated, and provided a few debatable assertions.

First from Touré, representing the adamantly anti-gun side:

Guns are only used for one purpose and that's killing.

So, it's not like Touré had many fans on the right, but that certainly won't help. Immediately co-hosts Krystal Ball and S.E. Cupp informed Touré that people -- Krystal's father and Cupp herself -- also use guns for target practice. Touré nevertheless continued, and went on to address Belcher's anger.

Enter Cupp, representing the adamantly pro-gun side:

That anger is what we should be talking about.... [Belcher's girlfriend] was done no service by Bob Costas, of all people, irresponsibly going out and telling millions of NFL viewers that they have permission to blame guns instead of the person who pulled the trigger... I think rather than talk about the guns, what we should be talking about is the root of the problem. Bob Costas has done something shameful and irresponsible, and is going to have some blood on his hands in the future...

Steve Kornacki then introduced some relevant and irrefutable facts about gun violence, including the fact that a domestic dispute is 12 times more likely to end in a homicide when there is a firearm in the house. Krystal Ball tried to serve as the voice of mediation.

You have to give "The Cycle" credit for debating the gun control issue. The liberal watchdog organization Media Matters rightly notes that on Fox News, its never the right time to have that discussion -- in part because it always comes up in light of a tragedy.

For that same reason, Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple champions Costas's decision to address the issue. "I say: More editorializing, more coverage of the nexus between sport and society and government, more spouting-off of the sort that'll anger all those guys who wear team jerseys every Sunday," he writes.

Whether Costas was "right" or "wrong" to advocate for gun control is sort of beside the point now. The fact is he did, and more importantly taht he did so on the one platform that could finally force people to pay attention: Sunday Night Football, which is very often the most-watched television event of the week.